Art of making metal wheels.



C. T. SCHOEN. ART OP MAKING METAL WHEELS. 'APPLIGATION mun SEPT. 13. 1907.

Patented Nov.3, 1908.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

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C. T. SCHOEN. ART OF MAKING METAL WHEELS. APPLIOATION PILED SBPT.13,1907.

Patented Nov. 3, 1908.

3 SKEETS-SHEET 2.

WTNESSES:

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C. T. SCHOEN. ART OF MAKING METAL WHEELS. APPLICATIDN I'ILED SEPT.13,19OT.

Patented Nov. 3, 1908.

'II/lIII/III INVEN TUR BY W WITESSES:

ATTORNH.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

CHARLES T. SCHOEN, OF MOYLAN, PENNSYLVANIA, ASSIGNOR, BY MESNE ASSIGNMENTS, TU UARNEGIE STEEL COMPANY, OF PITTSBURG, PENNSYLVANIA, A CORPORATION OF PENNSYLVANIA.

ART OF MAKING METAL mmm( Specflcation of Letters Patent.

Patentd Nov. 3, 1908.

Application filed September 13, 1907. Serial No. 392,757.

To all whom it may conccrn:

Becit known that I, CHARLES T. SGHOEN, a citizen of the United States, residing at Moylan, in the county of Delaware and State 'of Pennsylvania, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Art of Making Metal VVheels, of which the fol,- lowing is a full, clear, and exact description.

The object of this invention is to manufacture solid car-whecls direct 'from the molten metal.

Generally stated, and as illustrating ny present practice, the molten steel t'rom the open-hearth or other furnace is tormed into :n ingot, which is placed in a soaking pit, and while still hot is transferred to a powerful shearing nachine adapted to compress and shcar ofl' a. blank, which is then transferred to first-operation roughing dies and thence to second-operation roughing dies by which a rudimentary wheel is formed, and then the aXle-hole is punched and then the wheel rolled into finished shape in a suitable rolling mill, after which, when necessary, the wheel is dished or coned. From the furnace to the dishing apparatus, the metal is kept hot, and if, by any accident, it should cool down, it may be reheated before losing any material portion of its workable heat.

Owing to the use of heavy cars, carrying enormously heavy loads, as is the present practice, the wheels constitute a'heavy' operating expense item, and it is imperative that sometpractical scheme shall be developed whereby durable wheels may be economically produced in order to reduce this expense item and permit the railroads to meet the demands placed upon them for heavy and large capacity cars designed to be run at relatively high speed. 'Wheels made from pref'ormed blanks that have to be heated before being shaped by dies, presses, hammering, rollin, and other means, too frequently are de ective by reason of imperfections in the blank which escape the makcfis inspection nnd only develop in use. The rim, of course, is the most vulnerable point.

The present invention proceeds upon the rational theory that, if there is no practical let down in the plasticity and initil beat of the material from the time it is obtained in form to handle from the meltin furnace up to the time it leaves the whee rollmg mill, the cause of flawsin the rim will be machine. Fig. 4 is a perspective view of the product of the machine of Fig. 3. Fig is an elevation of a forging press with the dies in partial vertical section. Fig. 6 is a crosssection of the product of the first-operation dies. F ig. 7 .is a cross-section of the product of. the second-operation 'dies Fig. 8 is an elevation of a hub-punching press with a rudimcntary wheel in position between the clamps, and the wheel and the clamps shown in vertical section. Fig. 9 is a cross-section oi" the wheel as it comes from the machine of Fig. 8. F ig. 10 is an elevation and partial Vertical section of the rolling nill. Fig. 11 is a cross-section of the wheel as it comes from the machine of F ig. 10. Fig. 12 is an elevation of the machine for dishing or coning the wheel of Fig. 11, the dies being shown in vertical section. F ig. 13 is a cross-section of the dished or coned wheel as it comes from the machine of Fig. 12.

I Wish to state here now that while I have shown a series of preferred mechanisms or machines for carrying out the invention, I do not wish to be understood as limiting the invention to the use of such machines. It will be understood, of course, that a plant equipped with these or equivalent mechanisms or apparatus will be most economically operated by arran ing the apparatns substantially in the or er orsequence illustrated in the drawings.

The furnace, Fig. 1, may be of the ordinary open-hearth variety, having the hearth 1, in which the molten metal 2 is contained. Steel is preferably used in carryin out the invention. The steel is poured o into mgot's which a-re passed to a seeking pit and when the ingot has assumed shape of such stability as to permit handln, it s passed to a shearing machine of the c argcter illustrated in Fi 3, the details of which machine form tEe subject of an application for patent by another, but the essential features of which are a bed 3, on which the ingot'is placed, and a pair of reducing and shearing rams 4 and 5, having in their adjacent faces .means which will first engage the end of the ingot and reduce it to circular form and thereby condense the metal and particularly the circumferential portion of the metal, and subsequently shear oif the mass to ap roximately the weight of the desired wheel substantially as indicated in Fig. 4. To eflect this operation, the upper ram 4 may be supplied wi th means for imparting to it pressure very largely in excess of the pressure that moves the ram 5, so that the first movement of the rams will suflice to reduce the ingot circumferentially, and then while the ingot is held in the portion 6, the superior pressure of the ram 4 will car'y down the ram 5 and the shear-blades 7 and 8 will then be brought into play to cut ofl' the blank. Next, the blank of Fig. 4' is laced in the matrix 9 on the die-bed or ta le 10 of the die-press, Fig. 5, and then the table is shift-.

ed over beneath the plunger of the press 5, and the male die 11 is brought down so as to shape one face of the blank and form a hole in the center thereof, as indicated in Fig. 6. Then this blank is placed in the matrix 12 of the pair of second-operation dies and the die-bed shifted a ain,- so asto bring these second-o eration ies into line with the plun er, an the male die 13 of the pair of secon -operation dies is then operated in conjuncton with the matrix 12 to form the rudimentary wheel shown in Fig. 7. This rudimentary wheel is then placed in the punching-press of F ig. 8, and clamped therein between a bed-clamp member 14 and a removable clamp member 15, and while so held, the punch 16 is operated to punch out the hole n the rudimentary hub and thus transform the rudimentary wheel of Fi 7 into the punched rudimentary wheel of ig. 9. This punched rudimentary wheel of Fi 9 is then taken to the rolling mill, whic may be of anyvapproved construction, such as that indicated in Outline in Fig. 10, and comprising among other thin a back roll 17, which operates against the lank 18, said rolling mill also having roller dies, not

shown, which operate on the web of the wheel and on the rim and flange and hub, so as to properly roll and shape the wheel.

The engine parts 19 for driving the roll ing mill may be of any approved constructpn, geared or otherwise copled with the rollng mill proper for imparting the necessary Inotion to ts several dies `or rollers and other v n'oving parte.

i there is a female die 20 and a male i As the wheel leaves the telling mill it is of substantially the shape shown n Fig. 11.

Inasmuch as most 'car-wheels am dished or coned, the wheel as it comes from the rolling mll is suhjected to the action of a press,s\bstantially such as shown in Fig. 12 wherein die 21, the letter being connected with a plunger so that when lowered against the flat wheel of F i 11 su portedupon the die 20, the wheel wi l be dis ed or coned, as shown in Fig. 12, and more particularly, detached in Fig. 13'.

Now, it is to be noted that in the manufacture of wheels in accordance with this invention, the product is never allowed to get cold from the time it leaves the furnace or inelting apparatus until it is finished. In the event' o the blank bein treat/ed by an mischance requiring to be re eated, it will e suicient to expose the blank to furnace heat suflicient to restore its surface heat, but from a manufacturing view point, this is more economical than the cost of heatin the blank from a cold state, and the cost s not more than ten per cent. or fifteen per cent. of heating from the cold state.

By my inventon of producing wheels di-` rect from the molten metal, there is a saving of the rolling expense where th'e blank is first made from rolled metal, and there is a saving where the blank is first roduced as a casting, and, moreover as a ready pointed out, there is infinitely ess chance of imperfections or defects developing in the wheel after it is put into use. Moreover, there is practically no waste pr scrap. The use of the shearng machine also s beneficial in that the original stock is reduced to any desired extent and then immediately expanded in the forming dies and the result is.. that there is little or no hability of the blank de- CHARLES T. SCHOEN.

Witnesses: i

D. Brrron Camns, M.` R. JACESON. 

